How To Watch The Rio Olympics Online Without Cable

Here’s how to live stream the Summer Olympics for free without a cable or satellite TV subscription.

The Rio Games will start soon, but Americans looking to live stream the 2016 Summer Olympics will need a cable subscription to access NBC’s coverage. There is a workaround though. Here’s what to do so you can watch the Summer Olympics online for free without cable.

We’ve tried loads of other ways, but ExpressVPN is our favorite for streaming the Olympics because it always gives the best, fastest stream quality, unblocks both the BBC and CBC (plus channels around the world if you really want broad coverage), and has super-simple apps available for every device. You also can’t beat their 30-day money-back guarantee.

Watch The Summer Olympics On The BBC And CBC — Free, No Cable Needed

You have two great alternatives to NBC to watch Rio 2016 online: the BBC in the U.K. and CBC in Canada. These channels are both free, but US viewers are geographically restricted from accessing the live streams. So you’ll need to bypass the geo-blocks in order to watch.

There are a few different ways to unblock regionally-restricted content on the channels that will stream the Olympics. We’ll show you the easiest and most reliable way here: by using ExpressVPN. This is what we used to watch the Sochi Olympics online and it never once disappointed.

Here’s another huge plus to using ExpressVPN: They have a 100%, no fine print, money-back guarantee. So — should you decide you don’t like it after the Olympics are over — well, then, you just watched the entire Summer Games for free without cable.

BEFORE:

Without a VPN, you get geo-blocked by the BBC when you try to watch from outside the UK.

AFTER:

With a VPN, you bypass the geo-blocks and can watch the Olympics on BBC iPlayer — live and on-demand, on all BBC channels, and on any device.

Download the app for the device you want to use. You can download multiple apps and can use ExpressVPN simultaneously on up to 3 different devices. Their apps are super easy to use, and are available for every device: smartphone, tablet, computer, router, media streamer, gaming console, or smart TV. Pretty much, if you have it, ExpressVPN will work on it.

STEP 3) Get connected and start watching the Summer Olympics online for free

Now open the app and connect to an ExpressVPN server. If you want to watch the Olympics on the BBC, then connect to a U.K. server (we’ve had the best performance with the East London location). If you want to watch CBC, connect to a server in Canada.

Once you’re connected, ExpressVPN will take care of everything. Just visit the BBC and CBC online as you normally do, only now you’ll be able to access their live streams. You can also use their apps — for example, if you want to watch the Summer Olympics on Roku. Or you can use a device like Chromecast to play the live streams on your TV.

Once you’re connected to the UK, you’ll be able to live stream the Summer Olympics on the BBC for free.

Some VPNs we’ve tried have slowed down our connection, but ExpressVPN has always delivered super-fast streaming speeds without a glitch or interruption. You’ll also find you now have access to a whole slew of other geo-blocked content on sites and services (tons of new stuff on Netflix!), so do explore. It’s pretty cool.

Even if you have cable, for a world event like this it’s fun to watch coverage from other countries. And the BBC and CBC’s coverage tends to be broader than NBC’s. Enjoy the Summer Games!

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